Cleopatra: Origins: Arkham's Queen of Denial
by BloodIsThickerThanWater
Summary: Chloe Wilson used to be a sweet enough girl...until her older sister Rose fell in love with Nightwing and left her with a mentally and emotionally abusive father. Now, she has a vendetta against all three of them. What better way to get revenge than join ranks with the Joker, Clown Prince of Crime? But what happens if it turns out she has FEELINGS for the Prince of Arkham City?
1. Origin of Arkham's Pharaoh

"Lo siento, bebé. Pero mi veneno es la muerte" Copperhead purred in that gorgeous accent of hers. It made my blood pump harder just to hear her voice. Of course, that also meant my death was coming even faster. The beautiful South American kept threatening to let me die one of these times just to punish me for not fighting harder. I was supposed to be forcing her to give me the antidote.

I flipped onto my hands and pushed off the ground, meaning to land behind my mentor and take her by surprise. Instead, the poison in my veins made my arms weak and I landed on my back at her feet. I scrambled up using all the speed she had been teaching me. I pushed my body to it's limits and every day, my body lasted a little longer before giving out.

"You are dying, pendejo." She hissed her tongue flickering out. I closed my mind to my fantasies. I learned my lesson about falling for my mentor when I was young.

"Shut up, bitch. I'm immortal." I teased forcing myself to stand and running at her. She didn't bother to step aside, my vision was too blurry to see exactly where she was. I ran past her and spun around, sword making a very small cut on her cheek.

"I like watching my victims struggle." She purred.

I tossed my sword, caught it in my mouth and used my hands for a push-up roll in her direction. I jumped to my feet swinging at her with my sword. She jumped up crawling into the rafters.

"Too slow, Cabra."

My vision swam and I saw my father decked out in full deathstroke costume pointing his gun at my head. I could see hatred in his eye. "You are a disgrace to me and to Rose. You will never live up to your name. Why don't you just die?"

The gun in my father's hand shot brilliant orange sparks as he pulled the trigger in slow motion. The bullet crawled through the air towards me, but I couldn't move. I could hear my father continuing to taunt me. To tell me how many times I had failed him. He said he hated me. Inches from my face, the bullet flickered and disappeared. My father faded into a cloud of shadows.

"How will you defeat the phantoms of your mind, Chloe?"

"I AM NOT CHLOE! I AM CLEOPATRA AND I WILL KILL YOU!" My mind cleared up and I launched myself into the rafters, using every lesson Copperhead had ever taught me. I forced my body to contort into unnatural positions in thousandths of a second between one rafter and the next as I moved towards my enemy. Before I knew what was happening I was on top of my mentor with my forearm pinning her throat to my chest. She clawed at me and struggled to breath. I flicked my tongue over the shell of her ear. "Who's your Mummy?"

"Mierda." She cursed softly with the little breath she could manage. Her hands trembled as she reached down to get the antidote.

"CHLOE!" A familiar voice screeched. I looked up and I saw my older sister standing over me giving me the same glare as she had when I used her lipstick once. My hold on Copperhead's neck tightened convulsively. "Chloe, have you forgotten everything that I taught you? What ever happened to heroism? What happened to us being on the same team no matter what? Don't you love me? You disappoint me…."

"You left! That's what happened! Rosie, you left me! You left me all alone with dad and he STILL couldn't do anything but talk about you! Every time he talks it's Rose this Rose that. She calls herself Ravager still. That means she'll come back right? I couldn't stand it! I HATE YOU FOR LEAVING ME WITH HIM!" My voice went from a loud accusation to an earsplitting scream. My heart was beating fast and hard. My mind and body were rebelling out of my control. I felt a sharp pain in my neck and Rose disappeared along with the pain coursing through me. My body relaxed and I released my mentor.

"Cleo, sweety, you let it go too long. Your body can't handle too many days like that. Tomorrow I have a meeting about a new bounty. I want you to rest up and join my on this one." Copperhead's hand rested on my cheek. "This will be your big test, okay? If you do a good job on Project Bat, I'll give you the permanent antidote and give you a suit like the beginners in my group wear. You'll be an official apprentice."

I smiled distantly at Copperhead. Things were going fuzzy again, but in a hard-work nap-time kind of way. I was so tired. I was also pleased. I had been training for 4 years to become an official apprentice to an assassin. Granted, I had also learned to be a hacker and come several steps closer to perfecting the serum in those 4 years…


	2. What's the Plan, Boss-lady?

*5 years later*

I gave a loud sigh and looked over at the hall outside my cell at Blackgate Penitentiary. Women are milling around and talking in groups. I looked at the one closest to my door. "Give me a cigarette. I know you got several."

The woman, a mousy looking thing in for intent to traffic, scrambled into my room, holding out a whole handful of cigarettes as well as a pack of matches. I took one, and put it in my mouth, looking at her expectantly. She shoved the others in her pocket and struck a match, lighting my cigarette for me.

"Good girl." I purred and waved a dismissive hand. "Now get out of my house."

The girl retreated quickly to the hallway. I smiled.

"Lights out in five minutes! Return to your rooms ladies!" The warden's voice echoed through the intercom system. I always found it entertaining that even the warden wasn't allowed in the women's sector, let alone a male guard. Due to the shortage of female guards in general, our wing of the penitentiary was always lax in security. Soon all the inmates were in their private rooms, quiet and calm. My eyes closed, and I drifted to sleep.

Hours later, smoke filled the air. My eyes slowly opened and I saw flames licking through the vent. Evidently, the fire had started in the men's wing, but it spread into a few of the rooms on our side. There was only one wall separating them after all.

Panic ensued. Some of the women in sells by mine were screaming as if the fire had been started at their feet. I rolled my eyes and grabbed one of the shirts they issued for us. I slid it through the vent and held it until I felt the heat on my hands. Then I threw it onto my bed and watched the flames engulf it. Fire was a great escape plan. Now, I would be transported with the ones who thought it up. The wider the escape attempt, the more likely to succeed. I'd follow their lead and get out of here. Again.

Within hours, everyone whose cell was damaged in the fire, mostly the men, was transferred to the Arkham Asylum. Personally, I didn't see the improvement. Everything here was controlled by a remote operating system, and unless the mastermind had an expert hacker on the inside, we were doomed. I let out a loud sigh and got comfortable in my holding cell with only a few other women. A short time later, a doctor with blonde hair and pigtails opened my cell. Her bangs covered her face, and her coat was buttoned up from top to bottom obscuring her clothing from view. "Chloe Wilson, your presence is requested in the Intensive Care Wing for a psychiatric evaluation." She motioned for me to follow and I did.

The doctor wasn't much older than myself as far as I could I could tell. She must have gone through her college courses fairly quickly. We walked in silence through hallway after hallway until at last we got to a huge set of doors. She punched in a code and ushered me into the next room. The room was smaller than I expected and filled with computers and screens. The surveillance system for the Asylum was spread out in front of me. In the corner, the guard in charge of this wing was knocked out and tied up. The doctor released me and threw off her coat. I recognized Harley Quinn, a fairly famous face on the news for the last 5 years or so. "Hack in so that I control this dump." She ordered as she settled herself in one of the chairs with a mirror and handbag of make-up.

I hacked into the system with relative ease. Their security was almost a joke. I guess they never expected a hacker to get this far. They never expected criminals to team up. It was stupid of them really. Harley got me in, and I was more than willing to help her in exchange for my own escape. "So, what's the plan, Boss-lady?"

"You kept everything in our control, and I wait for Mr. J to get here. He should be here any minute." She practically purred the last line. Of course Joker would be here if Harley was. Those two were hardly ever without one another.

I didn't ask any more questions. I just delved deeper and deeper into the security system, reading up on all the known projects and studying the map for my escape route. Easily enough I found a classified driver titled Titan. It was a project that Dr. Penelope Young had been working on for some very very rich man named Jack White. There were hundreds of emails, which I gave a quick scan, and thousands of pages of notes. Titan was evidently a project to make a significantly stronger version of Venom, an illegal drug created to enhance one's strength. The was almost complete, but it had severe side effects...one of which being that Venom was a toxin. It slowly killed about half of the users. In regular users, that number increased to almost ninety percent. Titan did indeed make the patient, Patient X, significantly stronger, but it was also killing him significantly faster than the Venom had. There was then several pages describing the exact nature, speed, and severity of each individual side effect they had noticed. Suddenly, Dr. Young had typed a very poor excuse for the end of the project saying that the side effects were far too dangerous and she would be immediately stopping the trial and cutting off Patient X from the horrifying drug. She then had a few pages worth of half hearted notes about the withdrawal symptoms and a very hasty summary stating that this trial should not be attempted again for any possible reason. I sent the file to a remote driver that I could access from my computer at home. I could analyze the trial further after my escape.

"Honey, I'm home!" A very sexy male voice sang from one of the surveillance screens. I looked up to see none other than the joker himself smiling directly into the camera. Harley let out a demeaning fangirl squeal.

"Come on in!" She sang back, pressing the intercom button. She swiped her security card and I typed in the secondary password and presto! The Joker was free to roam the halls of the Arkham Asylum as he pleased. To my surprise, but evidently not Harley's he moved deeper into the prison unlocking the cells where the other inmates from Blackgate Penitentiary were still being held. I quickly typed in a secondary password to confirm this as well.

"Good job, Cleo dear, you're getting the hang of this." Harley grinned at me, now in full make-up and everything. She looked nothing like the doctor I had seen earlier. She pulled herself up from the chair and stashed her handbag over by the unconscious guard. "Now, Cleo, I need you to be a good girl and stay here until Mommy and Daddy are done with our little party, okay? I'll give you a ring if I need anything."

Harley danced out of the room, leaving me alone with nothing but a computer and a sleeping guy for company. I frowned. Come to think of it, the guy very well could be dead. I'd never checked.

I spent several minutes just typing cell release codes. Then Harley looked up into one of the cameras in the level B-4. "Hey, Cleo baby, do me a favor and play the first tape to your left in the Pacification Sector. Then pull us off the network. I don't want any interruptions until we're finished. Oh and also the second tape on your left needs sent out to the Gotham City Police Department. Thanks, baby! Momma will try and work fast!"


	3. The Handsomest Man I'd Ever Seen

For the next hour or so, I pretended to be some half-wit lackey for Joker and Harley, typing codes, hacking mainframes, and sending batman creepy messages. This was all extremely well-thought out for a madman. Then again, Joker wasn't just an ordinary madman. I remembered the first time I had met him. It was five years ago, while I was working with Copperhead to kill Batman. Joker was the one to put out the bounty, and even after Copperhead had been captured, I held her place in the running for Batman's head. When I showed up and stood in my mentor's place the Joker had taken quite an interest in me.

*Flash back 5 years*

"Little girl. What's your name?" He had sneered bringing his grinning face inches from my own. His breath had smelled of smoke and his suit of gasoline. The smell had made me smile, imagining him accidently dropping his stupid cigar and lighting himself on fire. Not even the most extreme criminal could have been frightening with that image rushing through my head.

"My name's Cleo. I'm an expert hacker, a brilliant strategist, a poison expert and a copperhead-in-training." I giggled insanely as the mental image of the Joker in my head ran around in circles then dropped to the floor trying to roll the flames out. Yes, one lit cigar...one small flame, and this man would go up in flames. I gave the Joker my very best arrogant grin and held out my foot, covered only in dusty looking bandages. "But you can call me Cleopatra, The first Pharaoh of Gotham City."

The Joker had laughed maniacally and patted my head. "That's cute kid, but any one of us here could kill you without batting an eye. And we all would too. Now go play on a swing set or whatever you kids do nowadays."

"I'm not a child, Khuyesos." I cursed standing my ground and looking Joker square in the eye. "Besides you need eight assassins for your plan. Copperhead's gone, and I'm the one taking her place."

"Do I really look like a man with a plan, Kiddo? I don't have a plan. The mob has plans. The cops have plans. You know what I am, Kid? I'm a dog chasing cars! I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught one. I just DO things. I'm a wrench in the gears. I'M AN AGENT OF CHAOS! And you know one thing about chaos? It's fair….I HATE plans. Yours, theirs, Everyone's." He ranted, but he also stepped away from me, leaving me alive as I knew he would. This was not a madman. This was a genius that wanted you to think he was mad.

*Present time*

I smiled softly at the fond memory. From that day forward, I had studied the Joker from a distance. I had also studied Batman, curious of the strange hatred Joker felt for the vigilante. It seemed to be even more of a hatred than any other criminal I had ever seen had for their captor. No, this vendetta was personal. Now, with Batman's ties to Dick Grayson, one of his old Robins, I had a vendetta against the man too. Joker could have my help at a moment's notice if he just asked me nicely.

"Cleo! Oh Cleo Dear!" Harley's voice pulled me from my thoughts and I found her face staring up at me from one of the cameras.

"Sorry, Boss. I got a little distracted. Whatcha need?" I giggled as I pressed the intercom button for that particular hallway.

"I need you to get ahold of Puddin' and tell him that B-man took the bait and abandoned the whole Joker thing to follow me." Harley cast a nervous glance over her shoulder and grimaced. "Anyways, I gotta go, Sugar. I really don't want B-man to catch up with me. He's just a little scary when you have something he wants. Toodles!"

Harley ran off, and I waited watching all the screens in that general area for several minutes until I saw a dark shadow crawling through the vents after Harley. I patched myself to the camera ahead of her and waited for her to run by. "He's in the vent's, Harley, just so you know. Approximately three minutes behind you and gaining."

Harley blew a kiss at the next camera in thanks, and I looked around searching for a shock of electric green hair. Moments later, I heard the doorknob and shot up from my chair and reached for my gun, which was, of course, still with my things at the Penitentiary. My fists came up, prepared to fight hand-to-hand as the door opened.

The first thing I saw was a simply striking pair of men's dress shoes. I let my eyes travel up the immaculate purple suit to rest on a face covered in clown make-up. For a long moment, I stared in utter horror. The Joker, the man I had been basically obsessed with for the last five years, was in front of me...in person...again… He was a terrifying figure, even among the criminals of Gotham City. On a closer look, though, he was handsome under all that make-up. The scars accented his handsome features, rather than obscuring them. The black around his eyes really brought out their natural beauty. I let my gaze linger on his neon green eyes for just a moment before giving him my biggest smile.

"Hello, Boss. What can I do for you?" I grinned. Inside, I was totally fangirling. Since I first met the Joker, I had admired him. In more recent years, I had saved clippings of every crime he committed. I had written down every word I heard spoken in his hypnotic voice. I had basically turned into his personal stalker. I didn't let any of this show, though. I kept a cool facade, as if he was just another employer. I had enough practice.

The Joker practically giggled with glee. "Well, someone's grown into quite the wonderful young assassin. I need you to take _this_ and _call _me is you hear a single word on Miss Penelope Young. I have some _questions_ for her."

I took the crappy little track phone and frowned at the still wet green spray paint on my hand. He could have at least warned me. Instead of voicing my annoyance, I smiled and set the phone in front of the screens. "Of course, I'll call you right away, Boss."

The Joker did an exaggerated little happy dance. I could tell now that it was all for show. The Joker was a lot of things, but he certainly was _not_ mad. The Joker simply wanted people to _think_ he was a madman. Really he was a genius. He was a handsome, smart, wicked, handsome, slightly-twisted, handsome genius who knew how to manipulate people. Did I mention how incredibly handsome he is? Under all that make-up and fake madness, the Joker was one of the handsomest men I'd ever seen.

"Gotta go, Kiddo! I've got a _party_ to plan!" The Joker gave me a wide grin and danced from the room. I watched him over the cameras as his insane persona went away and he was completely focused again. I smiled tuning into that camera's audio to listen to him mumble about batman and Titan and this stupid party. I smiled hacking into the system so the audio would follow him and scanned the other screens looking for Dr. Young.


End file.
